Resources - Working Paper: Gender analysis in building climate resilience in Da Nang, challenges and solutions - ACCCRN Network

Asian Cities Climate Resilience
WoRKING PAPER SERIES 35: 2016

Gender analysis in building
climate resilience in Da Nang
Challenges and solutions
TRAN TUAN ANH, TRAN VAN GIAI PHoNG, NGUyEN THI KIm HA AND
DINH QUANG CUoNG

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About the authors
Tran Tuan Anh. Tuan Anh obtained his master degree in 2008 at Chiang mai University (Thailand) and his doctoral
degree in 2015 at RmIT University (Australia). His expertise focuses on housing vulnerability, post-disaster housing
reconstruction, and building community resilience with a focus on the Vietnam context. His previous jobs include the
design architect for Kugler International Company and, then, the lecturer and researcher at Hue University of Sciences
(Vietnam). He has published papers on building climate and disaster resilience for shelter and settlements and is currently
involved in several housing and urban resilience projects managed and operated by ISET-International.
tuan.anh@i-s-e-t.org

Tran Van Giai Phong. Phong is the Vietnam Technical lead of the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition
(ISET). Phong works with city partners in Vietnam on the ACCCRN program and USAID funded project in assisting
in research, training activities to build urban resilience. Phong obtained his doctoral degree in Environmental Studies
from Kyoto University, Japan and his master degree in urban and regional planning from Hawaii University, USA. He
has an intensive knowledge of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction theories and practices. He has been
conducting research on environment management, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction in developing
countries, particularly in Vietnam. Phong has also worked as a consultant for many organizations of the United Nations,
and INGos in South East Asia region. phongtran@i-s-e-t.org
Nguyen Thi Kim Ha. Kim Ha is currently Vice director of Climate change Coordination ofice of Da nang city (CCCO),
as well as a technical coordinator of 100RC program activities in Da Nang City. Between 2011 and 2015, Ha has been
a coordinator of sub-projects and studies into climate change, and Water Resources management with consideration of
Climate Change Sub-project of Da Nang city in ACCCRN Phase 3. She has over 10 years of experience in consulting and
assessing environmental conditions and clean production. She holds a masters of Chemistry at University of Da Nang in
2007. ngkimha@hotmail.com
Dinh Quang Cuong. Since 2002, Dinh Quang Cuong has worked for the People’s Committee Ofice of Da Nang, where
he currently serves as the Deputy Head of the General division and the city’s Chief Resilience Oficer, and is responsible
for the management of all activities relating to foreign affairs and to the city’s sustainable development strategy. In may
of 2013, Cuong became the Director of the Da Nang Climate Change Coordination Ofice, where he is responsible for the
development and implementation of Da Nang’s Action Plan for Response to Climate Change and Sea level Rise. He also
plays an important role in coordinating all of the stakeholders and organizations working in the city on climate change

adaptation and mitigation projects. Cuong’s undergraduate education was in International Relations and Foreign Trade
Economics. Following graduation, he went on to receive his mBA at the University of Da Nang, and Doctoral Degree at
Grifith University in Queensland, Australia where he studied the environmental aspects of sustainable development in
Central Vietnam. dqucuong@yahoo.com

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Acknowledgements
The authors are sincerely indebted to Dr Sarah Colenbrander at the International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED) for her advice and guidance.
The authors appreciate and acknowledge the help of all partners, interviewees and respondents in Da Nang City during
the stakeholder consultations and household interviews, especially the staff from Da Nang’s Climate Change Coordination
Ofice (CCCO) and other administrative departments of the city, who provided valuable responses and feedback to the
research design, discussion themes, interview questions and ieldwork indings.
Unless otherwise speciied the source for the igures is data from the stakeholder consultation developed into igures by
the authors.

Abbreviations
ACCCRN

Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network

CCA

Climate Change Adaptation

CDKN

Climate and Development Knowledge Network

CFSC

Committee for Flood and Storm Control

CSRD

Center for Social Research and Development

DRR

Disaster Risk Reduction

IFRC

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

IIED

International Institute for Environment and Development

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ISET

Institute of Social and Environmental Transition

IWE

Institute for Water and Environment

moNRE

ministry of Natural Resource and Environment

NG

Non-Governmental organisation

UN

United Nations

UNDP

United Nations Development Program

VBSP

Vietnam Bank for Social Policies

WED

Women’s Environment and Development organisation

WU

Women’s Union

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Abstract
Although the legal framework for gender equality exists in Vietnam, gender
mainstreaming in climate change planning and action have not yet been fully realised
and addressed by local actors. In Da Nang, a gendered view to climate resilience

building was also a new approach for the city and local authorities and vulnerable
communities. This study examines the gender issue through the climate resilience
lens within the context of Da Nang to see how gender and its link to climate change
was locally perceived and at what level(s) gender equality and women’s role were
appreciated and incorporated into climate change planning and action.
The study applied the Resilience Framework provided by the Institute for Social and
Environmental Transition (ISET) to examine the linkages of gender and climate change
resilience building. Three key components of this Framework, Agent, Institution and
System, were then used to analyse the data collected from the stakeholder consultations
and ield survey. The key research indings include (i) in Da Nang, gender relations have
recently been given a positive signal; (ii) the lack of speciic instructions on gendered
relations is likely to cause local actors to underestimate the importance of gendered
interventions in practice; and (iii) the greater vulnerability of women is not merely due
to social or gender biases but also because of their own physical weaknesses.
Three important policy implications generated from the study are (i) the necessity of
improving women’s capacity to address their vulnerability; (ii) the necessity of having
supportive mechanisms to enable full participation of women in planning and decision
making; (iii) the necessity of integrating gender-sensitive indicators into plans and
strategies to guide gendered interventions in practice.

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Contents
About the authors

2

Acknowledgements

3

Abbreviations

3

Abstract

4

1

Setting the scene

6

1.1 Gender and vulnerability

7

1.2 Climate resilience in the light of gender equality

9

2

‘True gender equality’ and the need for gendered implementation

11

3

What shape gender analysis for climate resilience in Vietnam?

13

3.1 System: impacts of climate change and socio-cultural norms on women and men

14

3.2 Institution: effects of CCA policies, plans and actions on women and men

16

3.3 Agent: roles of women and men in vulnerability reduction and resilience building

19

4

Research objectives

20

5

Research design

21

5.1 Resilience approach

21

5.2 Data collection

22

5.3 Data analysis

24

Findings and discussions

25

6.1 System

25

6.2 Institution

30

6.3 Agent

33

Conclusion

38

6

7

References

40

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1 Setting the scene
Impacts of climate change on cities are mainly related to climate-related disasters such as loods, storms or extreme
weather such as heat waves (Alber, 2011). Coastal cities are usually more vulnerable than non-coastal ones because
they are more likely to be impacted by loods, storms, sea level rise and salinisation (Alber, 2011). In the low-elevation
coastal zones where human settlements are frequently located, people are more vulnerable to the rising tides and looding
compared with inland cities (mcGranahan et al., 2007; Balica et al., 2012). In developing countries, urban population
growth tends to increasingly focus in coastal areas where the rising tide may potentially create more impact on human
settlements (mcGranahan et al., 2007). In such coastal cities, low-income people will be more vulnerable than highincome people because their settlement locations are frequently in disaster-prone areas and their housing and livelihoods
are not stable and resilient to climate change (Dodman et al., 2013).
Climate change impacts are likely to exacerbate gender inequality and enlarge gender gaps if coping and adaptive
strategies underestimate the importance of gendered interventions and the necessity of gender mainstreaming in planning
and implementation. Gendered analyses play an important role in recent debates and discussions related to climate change
in assessing the gendered impacts of climate change and the gendered outcomes of resilience and adaptation strategies
(Sultana, 2014). The gendered analysis in this study examines climate change impacts on gender groups, the effects
of climate change policies, plans and actions on such groups, and the role and capacity of gender groups in climate
vulnerability reduction and resilience building. Gendered analysis not only clariies which gender groups (men or women)
will act as agents of change but also for understanding power relations between men and women in decision making with
regard to climate change (Sultana, 2014).
However, these relations and imbalances are not adequately analysed in Vietnam (oXFAm, 2009). Therefore, this
study aims to further the gender analysis through the lens of building urban resilience, with a focus on one of the most
vulnerable cities of Vietnam – Da Nang City.
“Gender equality may be further undermined via both climate change implications as well as adaptation strategies
that do not meaningfully engage with gender analyses.” (Sultana, 2014: 379)

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Figure 1: Da Nang City – The Study Area – is facing
challenges in urban development associated with
climate change

Source: Tran Tuan Anh

1.1 Gender and vulnerability
Women are among the most vulnerable groups to climate change due to various reasons including gender-insensitive
traditional social norms or limited access to basic resources (Nibanupudi and Khadka, 2015; Panda et al., 2014) (other
vulnerable groups include the poor, children and elderly). This is in part because poverty is gendered. Women head
about 40 per cent of the poorest urban households across the world (UNDP, 2009). In some developing countries, this
percentage may be higher, such as in the Philippines where 80 per cent of slum householders are women (Jenrich et al.,
2009). In Vietnam, generally, and Da Nang, particularly, no one knows how many households from the poorest group are
female-headed but, as deduced from the Women Union (WU) projects1, the number of female-headed households within
the poorest group may be relatively high: nearly half of beneiciary households in the WU housing project funded by the
Rockefeller Foundation were female-headed. In Vietnam, generally, and Da Nang, particularly, women are consequently
recognised as one of the groups most affected by climate-related shocks and stresses such as loods, typhoons or droughts
(moNRE, 2008; Da Nang People’s Committee, 2014). yet women’s traditional knowledge and practices are, in most
cases, valuable to the identiication of effective climate change responsive strategies and actions (Alston, 2013).

1

For examples, the Storm-resistant Housing Revolving Loan project from 2011–2014 funded by the Rockefeller Foundation or the
annual microcredit programs to support people’s livelihoods development, with a focus on female-headed or -included households

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Women’s greater vulnerability is also because their roles and needs are underestimated or neglected in planning and
action, even though they are a key labour force for most production and development activities (Resurreccion, 2011;
UN Vietnam, 2009). Power relations and gender roles in livelihood and income-generation activities have a substantial
inluence on the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of individuals, households and communities (OXFAM, 2009). For
example, in India, women are not effectively included in climate resilience inance frameworks so they lack the resources
to invest in adaptation (Panda et al., 2014), while in Sri lanka, women are not taught how to swim and climb trees, which
means that their survival rate is much lower than men during tsunamis (Nursey-Bray, 2014). In Bangladesh, early warning
information is usually transferred between men, while women are expected to stay at home and wait for men’s decisions
in response to climate events (Wong, 2012). In the Philippines, severe impacts of the 2009 typhoons ondoy and Pepeng on
women resulted in the government passing two laws on gender mainstreaming to ensure that future disaster risk reduction
and climate change adaptation measures are gender sensitive and responsive (Congress of The Philippines, 2009 & 2010).
Modern Vietnam is inluenced by historically patriarchal and feudalised social norms and biases, whereby women are
often limited to in-family tasks such as caring for children, food preparation or logistics, whereas development planning
and important decisions are mainly made by men without accounting for other perspectives or priorities. These barriers
have hindered women in actively engaging in community events and activities and tackling social matters. Decisions are
commonly made through consultations, meetings and dialogues where males are normally the majority of participants
(UN Vietnam, 2009). Furthermore, in the organisational structure of Committees for Flood and Storm Control (CFSC) –
the key government-based stakeholder to plan and implement coping measures at multiple levels – there are often more
men than women, and heads of these committees are frequently male regardless of the supportive policy environment and
advocacy about gender equality. In Vietnam, climate and disaster risk management frameworks are often unclear or vague
in terms of the role and contribution of women and men in planning and implementation (eg housing interventions, inance
interventions). Therefore, women are frequently more vulnerable than men due to inequitable power relations, where men
often have a stronger voice and more inluence in decision-making forums (Nibanupudi and Khadka, 2015; Panda et al.,
2014).
Finally, different actions taken by men and women in response to disasters are also inluenced by gender norms and
social biases (Resurreccion, 2011). For example, in Vietnam, men are often responsible for strengthening the house and
protecting human life, while women are commonly in charge of preparing food and water in anticipation of a disaster
happening (UN Vietnam, 2009). Based on case studies of many Asia-Paciic countries including Vietnam, Alston (2013)
expressed concerns about post-disaster situations, where gender equality and women’s engagement and empowerment
are likely to be negatively affected through loss of control over natural resources, means of production, information and
decision making. These impacts also potentially exacerbate women’s vulnerability to future climate hazards such as storms
and loods. Chaos and increased needs of housing, food and clean water after disasters may put more pressure on women
because a higher work burden is assigned to them, since they are expected to look after children or sick family members
while maintaining the wellbeing of their family (UN Population Fund and WEDo, 2009).
It is therefore essential to have gender-sensitive strategies for strengthening the resilience of at-risk/affected communities
against climate change impacts (UN WomenWatch, 2011). There seems to be a lack of comprehensive research on
gender and its relation to vulnerability and resilience (Alber, 2011) even though gender is one of the critical contributors
to vulnerability (Alston, 2013). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasised the differential
impacts of climate change on different gender groups, of which, women are usually the most vulnerable (IPCC, 2007; UN
Population Fund and WEDo, 2009). In urban contexts, women also have greater sensitivity to climate change and natural
disasters than men due to their lower levels of access to critical resources (Alber, 2011; oXFAm, 2009), such as land
ownership, credit, information, healthcare services, income-generation activities, education and training, and decisionmaking processes (Alston, 2013). Rapid urbanisation without suficient consideration of social aspects including gender
equity is likely to underestimate or overlook gender and women’s empowerment issues. Thus, building climate resilience
for rapidly urbanised cities such as Da Nang needs to be informed by gendered analyses and incorporate women’s roles
and inputs in strategies, planning and practical actions for vulnerability and risk reduction.

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Figure 2: Women are often bounded by their own home
and family’s tasks

Source: Tran Tuan Anh
Recent literature on the link between gender and disaster management seems to consider women as disaster victims
rather than disaster responders (Nursey-Bray, 2014) and, therefore, has not suficiently captured their role and potential
contribution in vulnerability reduction and risk management. There are a few examples in different countries (see
Nibanupudi and Khadka, 2015; IIED, 2013; Archer, 2012) where women have been empowered to take a leadership
or central role in responding to and recovering from natural disasters. However, in Vietnam, women’s roles are still
underestimated, which limits their scope to contribute to risk reduction interventions. Therefore, this study aims to
examine the role of women and their potential contribution in reducing climate and disaster risks and strengthening
household and community resilience to climate change.

1.2 Climate resilience in the light of gender equality
Resilience is frequently linked with underlying social relations of power, in which the issue “of resilience for whom…
and by whom” has emerged (Friend and moench, 2013: 107). Different rights and roles of different gender groups may
inform and shape different levels of vulnerability and resilience. Friend and moench (2013) pointed out the issue of
power and voice in shaping urban resilience, as decisions are often made through dialogues and exchanges where multiple
stakeholders/actors are involved and collaboratively deine resilient solutions and actions. In these decision-making
processes, power relations have a critical inluence that is likely to enhance or weaken the resilience of an individual (eg a
household) or a system (eg a community). Building climate resilience requires not only preparation for coping with shocks
and stresses associated with climate change, but also engaging with gender issues and women’s empowerment to reduce
particular vulnerabilities (oXFAm, 2009).

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Most deinitions of resilience frame the concept as the capacity of an individual or system to bounce back or return to
normalcy after a shock or stress without changing its basic functions (IFRC, 2012; ISET, 2012; Pendall et al., 2010).
Such deinitions may not be compatible with gender equality and women’s empowerment (Resurreccion, 2011). A ‘return
to normalcy’ may mean the continuation of forms or functions that are not gender-sensitive or gender-inclusive. Some
publications (for example, Satterthwaite and Dodman, 2013; Chelleri et al., 2015) propose the concept of ‘bouncing
forward’, so that resilience entails a shift towards greater inclusion and prosperity. Resilience is also context-speciic and
shaped by socio-economic and cultural conditions of a community or a region. For example, social norms and biases on
gender equality and women’s right and power will vary between countries or even among communities within a country.
misconceptions of resilience may lead to a limited understanding of how to cope with or adapt to natural hazards
effectively. To avoid such misconceptions, it is necessary to quantify resilience into speciic and obtainable objectives
(Quinlan et al., 2015). The research team’s experience with previous projects in Vietnam show that it is hard for local
actors to fully understand the meaning of resilience, perhaps in part because there is no Vietnamese word or term to fully
translate the concept2. They usually equate ‘resilience’ with withstanding shocks or with adaptive capacity. Recent local
discussions on responding to climate change recommended that it is important to avoid focusing on terminology. Instead,
it is essential that people without professional knowledge and ield experience understand the contextual or underlying
meaning beyond resilience. There are some concerns about the translation of theoretical frameworks on climate resilience
into practice since most up-to-date theories and concepts on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is
desk-based and commonly shared in academic forums where the number of practitioners and policy-makers is relatively
limited3. To this extent, it is necessary to have understandable and measurable indicators or tasks to explain and capture
resilience, and to ensure that such indicators or tasks are shaped by the social and natural conditions of the given
community or society. This research is accordingly an effort to concretise resilience through the gender lens to provide a
comprehensive and in-depth understanding of what gendered resilience actually means in the context of Vietnam and how
to achieve gendered resilience in practice, with a focus on Da Nang City.

2
3

Based on the participants’ perceptions in the Province-level Workshop on Climate Resilience organised by the College of Economics,
Hue University on 26 November 2015
Based on the participants’ perceptions in the Workshop on Climate Resilience Building organised by CSRD in Hue City (Vietnam) on
9 December 2015.

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2 ‘True gender equality’
and the need for gendered
implementation
Gender equality is widely regarded as an important principle or objective for social development, but translating it into
practice is still problematic. Mai (2009) emphasised the term ‘true gender equality’ (bình đẳng giới thực chất) to indicate
the real impact and inluence of so-called gender-based or gender-sensitive strategies and practices. There seems to be
a gap between paper-based gendered recommendations and practice-based gendered interventions: speciically, gender
seems to be heavily discussed in papers and documents but addressed in a limited way in practice. For example, the roles
of men and women are not suficiently noted and addressed in the operation of governmental administrative agencies
and departments (mai, 2009). This research aims to provide a reliable gendered analysis in relation to climate change
resilience building in order to tackle current gender-related gaps and support the engagement of women in planning,
decision-making and resilience-building agendas.
Building adaptive capacity to climate change is seen as part of climate resilience enhancement (IFRC, 2012). However,
effective adaptation may face gender-related problems if gender is not taken into account, particularly in terms of the
following gendered aspects:
■■ Impact: different climate change impacts on men and women (eg storm or lood impacts)
■■ Finance: different levels of poverty, access to resources and costs of adaptation for men and women
■■ Cognition: different levels of awareness and understanding between men and women on climate change and
resilience performance
■■ Action: different measures used by men and women for resilience purposes
■■ Institution: different levels of accessibility to information and social events and different levels of engagement in
decision making between men and women
(Based on Alston, 2013; Jones, 2010)
Through a current gender-supported legal system, the national government of Vietnam has emphasised the importance of
mainstreaming gender issues in socio-economic development as well as in climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster
risk reduction (DRR) plans and actions. Since 2007, the national government has commissioned the ministry of labour,
War Invalids and Social Welfare to manage gender equality related issues. The National Target Program to Respond to
Climate Change, which came into effect in 2008, views gender equality as one of the main principles for implementation
(moNRE, 2008). The legal framework to advance gender equality and women’s role in planning and implementation has
been improved in recent times, notably through the law on Gender Equality promulgated in 2006, the National Strategy
on Gender Equality for 2011–2020 and the National Target Program for Gender Equality for 2011–2015. Although the
legal and policy environment is ready for practical actions, recent interventions on CCA and DRR are yet to catch up the
spirit of the policy environment: gender analysis is still seen as the identiication of gender-related vulnerabilities, rather

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than a way to mainstream gender considerations in vulnerability assessments, development planning and decision making.
In addition, information and data related to gender issues are still limited and not regularly updated to guide gendersensitive practices in Vietnam (mai, 2009). While human resources for reaching gender equality have been prepared
at multiple levels, implementation of gendered actions in practice is still limited and the voice and power of women in
planning and decision making is relatively limited compared with men (mai, 2009).
There were several governmental and non-governmental programs/projects where the beneiciaries included femaleheaded households (for example, preferential credit programs provided by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies,
vocational training done by NGos and low-income housing projects implemented by WU). These are intended to support
the most vulnerable, who are often women. But it is essential to also consider the gender balance of labour costs and
payments, social and medical insurance and recruitment between men and women because recent publications (for
example, oXFAm, 2009; UN Vietnam, 2009; Resurreccion, 2011) have revealed a predominance of men to women in
such matters. moreover, the proportion of female participants in administrative and management boards and committees
is still low and unable to meet the growing women labour force in multiple sectors (lan, 2014). This raises concerns
about the scope for gender equality in organisational structures, decision-making processes and development agendas: as
outlined earlier, women are viewed as victims and recipients, rather than as agents and actors.
The above discussion demonstrates that power relations and gender equality are still problematic in Vietnam, even though
gender imbalances have been recognised for a long time and fully prioritised by the legal and policy environment. This
poses questions about the translation and transfer of gender-focused standards into practice, particularly in DRR and
CCA interventions. This research is an effort to tackle this problem by providing a comprehensive and practical gendered
analysis in the light of climate resilience, with a focus on Da Nang – one of the most climate-exposed cities in Vietnam.

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3 What shape gender analysis
for climate resilience in
Vietnam?
Although gender-related problems are clearly observed in Vietnam, not many publications in the country have analysed
power relations and gender roles suficiently. Thus, it is crucial for this study to provide a thorough understanding
on gender irst before proposing the way to incorporate and mainstream gender in climate change planning and
implementation. To achieve this, concepts and deinitions on gender need to be speciic, clear and understandable to a
wide range of stakeholders, particularly the local actors (eg households, community members, or local authority staff)
who have limited background and knowledge on gender and its link to climate vulnerability reduction and climate
resilience building.
Based on the review of relevant literature (eg Fisher and mohun, 2015; Salehi et al., 2015; UN Vietnam, 2009; Da Nang
People’s Committee, 2014; moNRE, 2008), gender analysis for climate resilience building within the Vietnam context
can be captured into three main areas: (i) impacts of climate change and socio-cultural norms on women and men, (ii)
effects of CCA and DRR policies, plans and strategies on men and women, and (iii) roles and capacity of men and women
in resilience building. In fact, these three areas tend to be similar to the three components of the Urban Climate Resilience
Framework proposed by the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) in 2012 where the three components
– agent, system and institution – can correlate to the three areas above, as follows:

Table 1: A gendered view of the three core components
of urban climate resilience suggested by ISET (2012)
System

Institution

Agent

Impacts of climate change and sociocultural norms on women and men

Effects of CCA and DRR policies,
plans and strategies on men and
women

Roles and capacity of men and
women in climate resilience building

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Figure 3: Three core components of urban climate
resilience in relation to gender analysis

SYSTEM
Impacts of climate
change and sociocultural norms on
women and men

GENDERED
CLIMATE
RESILIENCE

INSTITUTION
Effects of CCA
and DRR policies,
plans and actions
on women and
men

AGENT
Roles and capacity of
women and men in
resilience building

Adapted from ISET’s Urban Climate Resilience Framework, 2012

ISET’s Urban Climate Resilience Framework, deined by the three core components of agent, system, and institution
(Figure 3), functions as the umbrella to inform and shape resilience-building strategies and practices within Asian
developing contexts, including Vietnam. This research draws on this framework to examine and analyse gender and its
relation to climate resilience within the context of Da Nang City.

3.1 System: impacts of climate change and
socio-cultural norms on women and men
The climatic and socio-cultural systems usually generate different impacts on men and women. Climatic factors such as
heat, humidity, rain, wind or a mix of these factors may affect human health, especially to those who are not physically
strong such as women, children and the elderly, while socio-cultural factors such as social norms, cultural biases or
power relations may generate appreciation or underestimation of the public towards a social/gender group (eg the men/
male or women/female group). These two systems (climate and socio-culture) are closely linked in the context of social
development and climate change, but may possibly support or restrict each other, and may reduce or exacerbate gender
gaps and associated problems.

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Figure 4: Women often have a greater work burden
at home

Source: Tran Tuan Anh
For women, climate change is likely to increase their work burden, exacerbate their vulnerability and reduce their
resilience to future climate risks unless climate change planning and strategies are gender-sensitive. Six clear impacts of
climate change on the gender groups have been identiied from the literature review, as summarised in Table 2.
These gendered climate change impacts are likely to be observed in Da Nang, especially when a climate event happens
(for example, Typhoon Nari in 2013). However, these impacts have not been mentioned suficiently in Vietnamese
publications. In the matrix of the vulnerability assessment for Da Nang provided by IWE (2009), women are considered
one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change but the types of vulnerability and climatic impacts they are facing
have been not determined.
In Vietnam, social and cultural conditions also have a critical inluence on gender and the inclusion of women in social
matters. Due to the country’s long history of feudalism where women received relatively low respect and appreciation
in society4, gender equality is still problematic and more stresses are placed on women compared with men. Some local
proverbs persist that show the gender inequality and the social bias towards the role of women, such as “đ̀n ông xây
nh̀, đ̀n b̀ xây t̉” (men build house, women build wellbeing). During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the rights and
potential of women were not appreciated, and their education was designed to help them understand their role and task
in supporting the wellbeing of families, communities and society – not to equip them to engage with important or major
matters of community and society (Chi, 2013). During the post-feudal period, French colonisation changed some social
norms and biases towards women. During that time, the role of women was increasingly realised and respected, and they

4

The idea “tṛng nam, khinh ñ” (value men above women), inherited from Confucianism, had dominated the feudal society of
Vietnam at that time (1802–1945).

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could participate in social events and activities and take some important positions in society (Chi, 2013). The history of
Vietnam, with its many social changes and transformations, has a critical inluence on conceptions and viewpoints towards
gender equality and the role of women. Since 1986 – the time the country has been opened to the outside world – the role
and capacity of women has been increasingly recognised and incorporated in development planning and implementation.

Table 2: Climate change impacts and their gendered
linkages
Climate change impacts

Gender linkages

1

■■ more women died or injured compared with men due to their weaker physical health

Health impacts

■■ Greater work burden on women due to their responsibility for sick or disabled persons
■■ Women have less access to health services because they face higher levels of poverty
■■ Higher levels of violence against women due to men’s patriarchal thinking and
behaviour

2

livelihoods changed

■■ Increased work burden on women because more time is required for food production
and water provision due to negative climate impacts on natural resources, particularly
woodlands and water sources
■■ Resource scarcity, which means more stress on women to ensure suficient feeding
and caring for others (eg caring for sick or injured family members)

3

Impacts on education
and income
generation/job
opportunities

■■ Women have limited access to basic resources that increase adaptive capacity
(information, credit, land ownership)

■■ more girls drop out of school due to social biases towards boys, so they lack the
information, tools and conidence to engage in CCA activities

■■ Priorities of women are underestimated or neglected due to underrepresentation in
decision-making forums
4

migration increased
due to climate
stresses (eg looding)

5

General dificulties
faced by the family
after disasters (eg
being displaced, no
money, no food, no
secured home)

■■ male out migration increases, leading to an increase in female-headed households
■■ Greater workloads for women and girls

■■ Women are more likely to be the victims of domestic and sexual violence due to men’s
patriarchal behaviours

Based on WEDo, 2008; UN Vietnam, 2009; Brody et al., 2008

3.2 Institution: effects of CCA policies, plans and
actions on women and men
Vietnam was one of the earliest countries to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all
Forms of Discrimination against Women, and to localise this Convention into appropriate national laws and regulations,
especially through the legal documents mentioned above. This Convention was promulgated by the United Nations in
1979 and approved by Vietnam in 1982. In Vietnam’s law of Gender Equality (2006) and the National Strategy for
Gender Equality for 2011–2020 (Vietnam Government, 2010), gender equality is basically demonstrated in the two
following aspects:

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■■ Participating in state and governmental administration
■■ Right to be appointed
■■ Right to run for election
■■ Right to be trained, educated
■■ Right to join policy making
■■ Right to foster gender equality in state administration
■■ Participating in community/social activities
■■ Right to monitor/supervise
■■ Right to join unions, committees, boards…
■■ Right to vote
■■ Right to discuss and propose
■■ Right to join referendum
■■ Right to implement policies
■■ Right to foster gender equality in community and society
This legal basis has strengthened the role of women by providing them with more opportunities to engage in societal and
public decision-making and activities, and to improve their knowledge, experience and skills for meeting these duties and
job requirements.
Gender equality is widely mentioned in national adaptation programs of developing and least developed countries but
not really addressed by practical actions, commitments, and speciic guidance on how to mainstream gender (Fisher and
mohun, 2015). In these contexts, women are often viewed as victims rather than responders or contributors (Fisher and
mohun, 2015). Commitments and practical guidelines for gender equality and mainstreaming are still not available or are
not widely used in such countries, including Vietnam, although gender equality and women’s empowerment is usually
listed as one of the main goals of climate change planning and implementation.
National regulations on the shorter retirement age of women compared with men5 have affected employment opportunities
for women and reduced their likelihood of promotion to higher positions. The proportion of women in well-paid jobs is
relatively low compared with men (lan, 2014). According to UN Vietnam (2009), female migrants usually get lower-paid
jobs compared with male migrants in this country. In addition, women are less likely to be employed in manual-based
workplaces because they are not as strong as men. This badly affects the inancial stability of households, particularly the
female-headed ones, increasing their vulnerability and hindering their resilience to future climate risks.
The limited translation of gender equality into practice, in part due to the lack of detailed instructions and guidelines
for implementation, is possibly also a result of the generality of gender laws and policies. In the Da Nang City Climate
Change Resilience Action Plan for 2011–2020 (Da Nang ACCCRN City Team, 2010), gender equality and gender
mainstreaming is not clearly addressed and identiied. Gender consideration is still focused on female-headed households
in general terms without speciic guidance of how to concretise this objective with practical actions. In Da Nang’s
vulnerability assessment, gendered impacts of climate change and gendered vulnerability are not clearly identiied (IWE,
2009). Social impacts of climate change in Da Nang identiied by the report mainly relate to the affected livelihood of
the poor, rural-to-urban migration, health and sanitation, and relocation. Most of the identiied vulnerabilities of the city
focus on tangible areas such as urban trafic road systems, irrigation systems or water supply systems (IWE, 2009). In
the Master Plan for Socio-Economic Development of Da Nang Towards 2020 approved by the Prime minister in 20106,
gender equality and women’s participation are still not adequately considered. Therefore, there has been a lack of speciic

5
6

Current regulated retirement ages in Vietnam: 55 years old for women and 60 for men (Labour Law, 2012)
Decision No. 1866/QĐ-TTg approved by the Prime Minister on 8 October 2010

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guidelines to guide and shape gender-sensitive plans and actions of climate resilience in Da Nang, such as what proportion
of females should be on climate and disaster management boards or in what ways men and women can equally share their
voice, power, opinions, rights and responsibilities towards decision making and practical actions.
We assessed the gender sensitivity and awareness of CCA plans and policies developed at the city-scale. Such policy
documents tend to scope the gender issue down to the identiication of women and girls as vulnerable to a changing
climate. Within this sense, females are seen as the disaster victims rather than disaster responders and contributors, which
is unlikely to promote women’s strengths and capacity for better resilience building and community development.
As explained by oXFAm (2009), limited women’s participation in decision making and dealing with important
community/social matters generally results from two main causes:
■■ Existing work burden
For women, a full workload at home and within their community hinders them from engaging in social activities/
events including CCA and DRR. (The impact of these social norms is detailed in Section 3.1.)
■■ Discriminations in legal documents and policies
Rates of women’s engagement are often lower than men’s (eg The Election law in Vietnam stipulates that there should
be a minimum of 20–30 per cent of women representatives on the People’s Council). local credit institutions, such as
local banks, tend to prefer lending money to male-headed households (oXFAm, 2009) because they believe that such
households are likely to earn more income than female-headed ones and, hence, will ind it easier to repay loans. There
are only a few banks that require both men and women to sign on loan application forms (oXFAm, 2009). This also
inluences some credit projects on CCA and DRR where women have less access to credit resources to improve their
response and adaptation capacity.
Currently, six months of maternity leave is oficially offered and currently in effect (previously it was four months). The
national government is in the process of drafting a new policy where a husband can take leave to assist his wife while
she is on maternity leave. This shows that gender goals are gradually being transformed and transferred into practical
interventions in Vietnam, and that the government and wider public are increasingly acknowledging the rights of women.
Da Nang is currently developing the city’s resilience strategy for the next ive years (2016–2020). The imminent
publication of this policy framework is the rationale for this study, which is intended to provide evidence about gender
relations and the role of women in building urban climate resilience for this city. Four focus areas have been already
identiied in the strategy, as illustrated in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Four focus areas of climate resilience building
for Da Nang from 2016 to 2020
Focus Area 1

Focus Area 2

Focus Area 3

Focus Area 4

Improve the safety
and resilience of
vulnerable households
to storms and climate
disasters

Strengthen
employment
opportunities for
rural and migrant
households

Identify suitable mechanisms
to ensure the provision of
green infrastructure for lood
management and urban
resilience

Integrate public communications
and shared data through
information technologies to better
prepare for emergencies and loss
reduction

Gender is important to all the focus areas and hence needs to be examined and analysed as a complementary indicator of
the city’s resilience strategy.

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3.3 Agent: roles of women and men in vulnerability
reduction and resilience building
Urban climate resilience is more likely to be achieved once all social groups including women fully participate in
planning, decision making, and implementation (Gaillard and mercer, 2012; Hayles, 2010). In Vietnam, women play an
important role in maintaining the wellbeing of their families and communities but, frequently, receive limited appreciation.
They are also the ones present in the community when climate disasters such as storms or loods happen, while men are
away from home working in other provinces/cities. Due to lack of education, skills or conidence, female participants in
CCA and DRR planning may also not be as vocal or inluential as male ones. In short, the inclusion of women in planning
and decision making does not always ensure the outcome of gender-sensitive plans and strategies (Fisher and mohun,
2015).
In addition, female groups also have fewer opportunities for education and career development in the Vietnam context
(oXFAm, 2009). Accordingly, attendance rates of female students in schools and universities are still not equal to male
ones. The proportion of female students who leave school early is also higher than males. Employers usually prefer
recruiting men because they are physically stronger than women, at least for manual labour. Some recent newspaper
articles7 show that there is an increasing trend of female unemployment due to dismissals by employers in response to
inancial hardship.
Recent projects implemented in Da Nang (eg WU housing project8, CDKN project9, ACCCRN project10) have improved
gender equality and women’s engagement in planning, accessing fundamental resources (eg information, inance,
technology) and decision making. For example, in the storm-resistant housing project implemented by Da Nang Women’s
Union (2014), gender issues were widely addressed throughout the project, such as:
■■ 320 households have their houses upgraded structurally within three years (2011–2014), mainly the households headed
by or including women/female member(s)
■■ 23 local saving groups operated and managed by women, and
■■ more than 700 staff of Women’s Union, local Committee for Storm and Flood Control, local saving groups were
trained about climate change, disasters and housing microcredit for storm preparedness.
Another example is the 2014–2015 project ‘Intensifying the capacity of the Committee for the Advancement of Women
against Domestic Violence on Women and Girls’, funded by the Spain’s Peace and Development organisation11, which
was implemented in three communes/wards of Da Nang (Hoa Cuong Bac Ward, Hoa Khuong and Hoa Phong Commune)
to (i) raise public awareness and intensify the capacity on gender equality and (ii) prevent violence on women and girls.
However, gendered analysis is still not suficient to fully support the gender mainstreaming in development planning
and implementation. The review of gender literature (eg moNRE, 2008; Vietnam’s Gender Equality law12, 2006; UN
Vietnam, 2009; oXFAm, 2009; Diep, 2013) shows that the participation and empowerment of women is one of the
key targets to ensure gender equality for the whole country. However, the insuficient attention paid to gender in the
development strategies of Da Nang may indicate weak links between national or ‘umbrella’ regulations on gender and
context-speciic plans and strategies (ie city development strategies and climate action plans). This gap poses the challenge
of concretising gender-related principles and goals, as well as of clarifying inputs, tasks and outputs to ensure locally
appropriate gender equality.

7

i.e. http://www.nhandan.com.vn/cuoituan/phong-su/item/28927702-viec-lam-cho-phu-nu-nong-thon.html ; http://www.worldbank.org/
vi/news/press-release/2012/10/01/jobs-cornerstone-development-says-world-development-report (both in Vietnamese language)
8 Source at http://i-s-e-t.org/resources/major-program-reports/typhoon-resilience-in-vietnam.html
9 Source at http://cdkn.org/resource/da-nang-typhoon-intensity/?loclang=en_gb
10 Source at http://acccrn.net/blog/improving-resilience-workers-heat-stress-da-nang-vietnam
11 The organisation website at http://www.pazydesarrollo.org/
12 Source at http://moj.gov.vn/vbpq/lists/vn%20bn%20php%20lut/view_detail.aspx?itemid=14854# (in Vietnamese language)

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4 Research objectives
As mentioned in the previous sections, women are likely to have a substantial contribution to make to vulnerability
reduction and resilience building in Da Nang. However, their roles have only been addressed in a limited way in CCA
and DRR planning and implementation, especially in recent risk management projects in the city. This shortcoming
necessitates this research into gendered power relations to better understand gendered vulnerability and how to incorporate
gender into resilience building plans and strategies. Within this sense, this study focuses on three key objectives:
■■ To understand the current contributions of women to building climate resilience in Da Nang
■■ To ind out the potential roles taken by women in building urban climate resilience, and the beneits of enabling
women to assume these roles, and
■■ To propose a gender-sensitive operational framework in which the role and social status of women can be strengthened
through resilience planning and implementation.